NaHaiWriMo...February Haiku

Official NaHaiWriMo ... one haiku for every day in February
Prompter: Michael Dylan Welch

2/1 (apples)
little bird
how many apples
from this one seed?

2/2 (boat)
midnight chill
how the wooden boats
echo

2/3 (catfish)
approaching anniversary
Namazu wreaks havoc
in their dreams

2/4 (dog)
our morning walk
my breath above hers
in the dog park

2/5 (eggs)
oma’s brush
upon the hollow Easter egg
again she asks the date

2/6 (frame)
Mount Desert
the sky too big to fit
in the frame

2/7 (grief)
twenty one springs
still I wonder if she waits
in the afterlife

2/8 (hat)
corner pub
the pattern of each tweed cap
as novel as the bald spot

2/9 (ice)
skidding down
a mischievous road
black ice

2/10 (jam)
snowfall
a morning full of toast
and cherry jam

2/11 (kitchen)
wet wool mittens
and soup on the stove
snow day

2/12 (laundry)
laundry day
not my color lipstick
on his dress shirt

2/13 (mountain)
56 years
still the moon rises
over the mountain

distant friends
what mountains lay beneath
your moon?

2/14 (nacho)
her valentine gift
found on eBay
a heart shaped nacho

2/15 (opera)
motherless spring
father introduces me to
Tristan und Isolde

2/16 (pool)
infinity pool
he weighs what it will take
to push her to the edge

infinity pool
suspended at the edge
fallen leaves

2/17 (queue)
queued
to shake the peas from their pods
thunder clouds

2/18 (rattle)
reconciliation ~
the muffled rattle
of her rosary

2/19 (sandals)
in moonlight at the water’s edge sandal-less

2/20 (talus)
up to her knees in scree
with each frost another crevice
in her face

2/21 (umbrella)
in the urn
three umbrellas and
a dead moth

2/22 (vent)
my incubus
the suffocating pressure
of the ventilator

2/23 (wig)
her bald head
finally brave enough
the toss the wigs

2/24 (any x)
summer camp
ripped from all my shorts
the XXL tags

2/25 (yellow)
cast on the floor
moonlight
and a yellow silk robe

2/26 (zip)
between L and M
his first flower to me
in a zip lock bag

2/27 (a bad haiku)
under the boardwalk
all the many broken shells
crying for band-aids

garden of roses
sunshine from the big blue sky
a stone in my shoe

2/28 e-gen haiku rewrite

original:
chambermaids soften
exceptional chime blushing
clamoring lame meek

rewrite:
her soft blush
as she changes the sheets
her chimes still chiming

2/29 (leap)
leap of faith
in the memorial garden
perennial seedlings

January NaHaiWriMo (It ain't just for February anymore)

NaHaiWriMo (National Haiku Writing Month) was started in February 2011 by Michael Dylan Welch as a challenge for poets to write one haiku a day during that month. It didn't take long for this experiment to explode to international proportions and it now runs all year long with guest prompters every month. I've been writing ku on the Facebook NaHaiWriMo page for the past year. This is what became of January:


January NaHaiWriMo Prompter: Annie Juhl

1/1 (beginnings)
first morning
not a hint of the future
in this cloudless sky

1 /2  (family/friends)
surgical prep
the warmth of my sister’s hand
as I wait

1/3  (local season)
arctic blast
33 scrabble points
for frigid

1/4  (fur/feathers)
bedtime stretch
the softness of the fur
between her claws

1/5  (here and now)
a visit from friends
last night’s snow
already melted

1/6  (daydream)
day moon
three kings leave gifts
in the barn

1/7 (haiku for Kat’s haibun)
With swelling clouds before them these Saturday afternoon drivers are all on their way  somewhere. The traffic crawls. My eyes are beguiled by the shape shifting sky. My mood changes with the music on the radio and my mind wanders. The work left behind. The friend whose mother is ill. The husbands and wives still in love and those who aren’t. Construction always along this same curve . . . what is it they are trying to fix?  Those who have passed and those still with us.  Streaming sunlight unfolds from the smallest bit of blue sky.   My mother always told me those rays were ushering souls into heaven  Still these dark clouds color my everything. And all these brake lights.

the hills ahead
might there be a clearing
for kite flying?

1/8 (limbs)
alone this winter
if only my arms could reach
the moon

1/9 (pirate/viking)
pirate’s wench
just another daydream
of a sexier me

1/10 (scent/smell)
in moonlight
the frozen koi pond absent
of its scent

1/11  (energy)
these fragile orchids
where do they find the energy
to reach for the sun?

1/12 (narrowing focus)
a sky full of moon
yet the moth still pokes
the nightlight

1/13 (13)
yesterday’s damaging winds
the boy I loved
when I was just thirteen

1/14 (twilight/dusk)
dusk unnoticed
dad’s sharp whistle
calls us home

1/15 (Annie’s photo of the lake in northern Norway)
reading Milton
between the lines I find
my own paradise

1/16 (ground/earth)
a murder of crows
where the oak stood
a scar in the earth

1/17 (music/song)
morning snow
the shape of windsong
through the trees

1/18 (flowers)
splitting iris bulbs
the sisters finally speak
to each other

1/19 (food)
snowy forecast
navel oranges the brightest
things in the room

1/20 (pain)
slack tide
awaiting the answer
that never comes

1/21 (soft)
mother’s touch
whispers of ‘edelweiss’
after my bad dream

1/22 (sixth sense)
before the first snow
squirrels frantic
to bury their nuts

1/23 (dragon)
these medicated nights
dreams of costumed dragons
on lily pads

1/24 (one line haiku)
new moon drawing the winter surf closer

1/25 (metaphor)
morning glory
dew
between the petals

1/26 (water)
tossing and turning
the tide
my only truth

1/27 (light and dark)
a swoop of pearl white
on this blackened canvas
waxing crescent

1/28 (fire)
fire breather
how quickly the air
is sucked from the room

1/29 (birth/death)
dropping
a handful of dirt
the orphan

1/30 (wind)
on this path
all to herself
wanton wind

1/31 (circles)

My first haiku on NaHaiWriMo from February 1, 2011:

winter storm warning
we count all the colors
in last spring's photos

And then came the first prompt from Michael (hands):

peace march
holding hands with people
I will never see again

We are now well into February, the official month for NaHaiWriMo. Check it out when you have a chance:
NaHaiWriMo on Facebook